OKLAHOMA CITY — The Republican leadership of the Oklahoma House of Representatives backtracked last week, announcing its support for a special session to address vaccine mandates, after previously saying vaccine proposals would not be considered in a special session.
On Dec. 3, House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, issued a media statement that said House Republicans supported a call for a special session to address vaccine policy. McCall said Republicans want to pass legislation addressing federal vaccine mandates facing court injunctions due to major constitutional concerns.
“President Biden's unconstitutional vaccine mandates are already under court injunctions secured by House Bill 1236 legal challenges,” McCall’s statement said. “The injunctions are positive developments, but they are not permanent protections for Oklahomans being forced to choose between their freedom or their jobs. Just as House Republicans led to enact House Bill 1236, we stand ready at any time to fight overreaching federal vaccine mandates via legislation in a special session. House Republicans support securing freedom for Oklahomans immediately.”
McCall’s announcement is a major shift from his previous announcement that the GOP-lead House wouldn’t consider vaccine mandate policy during a special session.
In November, McCall said lawmakers had already passed House Bill 1236, which allows for legislative review of presidential executive orders and gives an additional $10 million to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office to push back against federal overreach.
On November 8, McCall said he expected vaccine legislation will come up in the 2022 legislative session which begins in February. “I think we will see legislation and ideas on that in the regular session,” he said.
Since then, however, a small group of lawmakers – from both the House and Senate – have pushed to have a second special session (following the special session on reapportionment) this year to address vaccine policy. On Nov. 27, State Senator Casey Murdock, R-Felt, told The Woodward News that he had 27 of the 32 signatures needed on a Senate petition to convene a special session.
“I truly believe a person has the right to choose whether they take it (the vaccine) or not,” Murdock told the newspaper. “Some people have forgotten that this is a virus that you have a 99.5 percent chance of surviving.”
Murdock told the newspaper his petition calls for a special session to propose or amend Oklahoma law to “assist employers and residents to exercise other medical options for maintaining employment in response to the Emergency Temporary Standard issued by OSHA for COVID-19 vaccination and testing.”
However, not every lawmaker supports the idea.
State Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, said he was against a special session on vaccine mandates until “the court cases have run their course.”
In a text message to Southwest Ledger, Caldwell said he would not vote for legislation that requires business to act unilaterally one way or another, adding that he would “vote yes on a bill saying government doesn’t have a right to mandate.”
Caldwell isn’t the only Republican lawmaker questioning the idea of a second special session.
Rep. Judd Strom, R-Bartlesville, said he, too, was against a special session on mandates. Strom said he was concerned that legislation would limit a private business owner’s ability to make their own decisions.
Strom said language in current legislation could be interpreted to prevent employers – such as those in the restaurant industry – from screening employees who cook and serve food.
“I’m trying to protect conditional employment,” Strom said. “We don’t want the government telling a private business what they can and can’t do. If we start down that road it could lead to other issues that would limit how a private business could set conditions for employment.”
No person, Strom said, has a constitutional right to another person’s property. And preventing a private business from establishing its own employment policies would, in effect, be allowing the government to dictate what policies a business could and could not establish.
Mike Underwood, the operations manager of Mike’s Sports Grill in Lawton, urged lawmakers to avoid making business policy.
“Any policy that the legislature wants to get involved on hiring employees, I’d be against,” he said. “Anytime they do, they screw it up.”
Lawmakers, Underwood said, don’t have to follow the rules they set for state businesses. “Once they start writing policy, it always ends up getting twisted. They should stay the heck out of the employment business and let us do what we do.”
The leader of the state’s business lobby echoed Underwood.
Chad Warmington, president of the State Chamber of Oklahoma, said his organization was against mandates on business of any kind. Warmington told Fox affiliate KOKH-25 News that decisions on vaccine requirements should be left up to each business.
"We’re going to be opposed to mandates that interfere in that privacy and that ability to make those decisions,” he said. “Just like we would be opposed to the state legislature coming in and having a mandate that says businesses can’t require its employees to be vaccinated.”
The debate over the issue has sparked several pieces of legislation focused on vaccine policy.
On Dec. 6, Sen. Blake Stephens, R-Tahlequah, filed Senate Bill 1128, the “Employee Liberty and Freedom Act.”
The bill, Stephens said, would ensure current employees are exempt should employers institute new mandates for vaccines or other medical treatments and would make it unlawful for any employer to require their current employees to submit to or take any vaccination or medication as a condition of employment.
In a media statement, Stephens said he was particularly concerned about loyal workers suddenly being faced with a new requirement that could force them out of their jobs.
“My heart goes out to the hardworking employees who’ve spent decades on the job only to be told they have to get a shot, or they’ll be fired,” he said. “For older workers, they may not be able to find another job in their field. My bill simply says that you cannot change the rules on your existing employees.”
The pushback against vaccines comes as the country continues to fight the COVID-19 virus and its two strains: Delta and Omicron. As of Dec. 6, more than 670,000 Oklahomans have been infected with the coronavirus.
Additionally, 11,296 Oklahomans have died from COVID-19. In Oklahoma, 4.99 million vaccine doses have been administered; more than 2 million – about 52% of the state’s population – are considered fully vaccinated, that is, having received both shots.